At BCCI’s apex council meeting ahead of this year’s IPL opener, one of the things on the agenda was to shortlist venues for the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup to be held in India later this year. The shortlisted cities included Guwahati, Raipur, Visakhapatnam, Mullanpur and Indore. Barring Visakhapatnam, the other cities are yet to host a women’s ODI—and even at Visakhapatnam, the last women’s international game was held a decade ago. Guwahati has hosted three T20Is, but the remaining centres have never hosted the Indian women’s team.
This is in contrast to the last few women’s World Cups across formats. Since 2017, women’s ODI and T20 world cup finals have been hosted at iconic stadiums including the Lord’s in England, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Hagley Oval in New Zealand and Newlands in Cape Town. The last time India hosted a Women’s ODI World Cup, in 2013, the final was held at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai—a venue that is used for the Women’s Premier League. The 2016 T20 WC final was played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The women’s game has come a long way. Since the inception of the WPL, India women have played in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot. And most of these venues have seen large crowds, including more than 45,000 people filling the D Y Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. While there is some merit in the BCCI taking the women’s game to smaller centres, the lack of familiarity and accessibility to some of the venues will not help. At a time the women’s game is getting more popular than ever, what is easily the most coveted trophy in the women’s sport needed a fitting stage. If the BCCI was serious in taking the WC to the chosen smaller centres, they could have used the 2025 WPL to promote the sport there. However, not all is written on the wall yet. The WC qualifiers are yet to take place and Pakistan qualifying will change things up, with them playing in the UAE or Sri Lanka on the agreed terms. That would also mean that the tournament, played in the round-robin format, will have to be scheduled accordingly. And with the time at hand, the cricket board might want to reconsider the venues and give the tournament the attention and stage it deserves.